Machen Downhill Trails Farewell Jam

In A small village called Machen in the South Wales valleys a group of local lads have made some bad ass downhill mountain bike trails, there is 2 mountain bike groups that dig in the same very steep forestry, the Machen miggly moos mtb and the machen trail builders, the moos make sweeping flowing trails over nice root sections and steep drops where as the trail builders have taken the game to another level making some bad ass north shore type trails, these trails are located up by the mast to a bit of a hike to get up by when your there you are worth it, they consist of three main jump lines, tiny tim; smallest line but not small by no means, 6ft drop off platform onto a jump up jump off table followed by 3 nice fast medium size doubles, Kenneth; this was the original trail the boys built, you start right at the top off the hill there is a number of doubles, hips, step ups, chicanes and north shore type tables and ladder drops, the trails is by far the longest trails decending above 300ft in a very short period of time, them the last trail is big ben, this is a massive drop off, gotta be 10ft, into a flat out right hand berm then going over a nice flowy big double,, the boys have had to cease building to there as many of the surrounding trees have disease and have to be felled by natural resources wales this winter so decided to run a jam while the summer is still here as may be the last chance to the left is big ben the middle Kenneth and to the right tiny tim,

after parking quite high up in the village I proceeded up through the very steep and difficult push up through the stunning thick forestry to find the trails up the top sweating and completely out of breath, was it worth it?? hell yeah, after I put a £1 in the kitty for my can of fosters and grabbed my burger off the bbq that was also a generous £1 I seen that the locals showed up in force and a few travelled to have a good old session, I was then handed the mega phone and kindly asked if I would do the honour and commentate for the day, and I gratefully accepted so that was me forgetting to ride until a little later.

was nice to see the van road trails boys, c*ntos mtb and a few machen miggly moos and risca riders come up, even the guys that wasn't riding the jump lines was still having a ball riding the trails other less intense trails and socializing with some good tunes and the random bike flying over the tables, really was surreal experience to be so close to the action having some food and a beer in the stunning machen forest, there was some lengthy showers but every one seemed to brave the rain best they could and carry on when the sun would shine through the trees making the scenery breath taking






unfortunately we had to give away one of the prizes quite early as owain rees from one of the local clubs took a tumble and broke his collar bone, need less to say that was the end of his day heading off to hospital , heal up man .
so after all the hellos we headed up to the top double on Kenneth to run the whip off that we decided to run in eliminator format with a 20 minute jam with some intense trains with over 15 riders at a time with some of the guys throwing in suicide no handers and one handed whips mid train. we then got down to the elimination and knock the bottle out of hand, the bottle out of hand was taken in the second round by team skene rider kyle fletcher taking a bottle clean out of my hand with his back wheel sending it off into the trees for me to go find winning him the tafia uk t-shirt but surrendering it to the young shredder at 14 years old rhys barter hitting the big boy trails .

Rhys barter getting it side ways with you top commentator in the background

the elimination rounds were off the hook, with quite a few re runs as the level of riding was through the tree tops, also a few guys getting over excited and having a little unscheduled rest on the landing of the jump, no one getting hurt so all in good fun, the beasley bros and will benyon smashing out the moves but machen trail builders trail crew member mike yourath took the second t-shirt with will, mike or gaz taking the other one, I failed to see as was so excited about the riding I failed to register what was actually going on,



Jason Carpenter the creator of van road trails and rampworld Cardiff turned up and looked like he was having a very good time ,

no uplift at the trails so its shanks pony back to the top


we just about got through the whip off with minimal rain but the showers became more frequent but it didn't spoil the fun for the riders or spectators that turned up to watch the shenanigans and have a beer, we splashed some more t-shirts out again from tafia uk, and headed down to the hip to get the biggest flat table on the hip line further down Kenneth after the table, got some awesome practice runs dialled and we went for it, we elected c*ntos mountain bike club to be the judges as they had such a good turn out with nearly 10 of their members coming up, again will and the beasleys were at it with james shortman looking on fire along with the trail builders, they run a few trains then on with the flats in train format being dropped down to the final 5, I do believe shortman had a t-shirt and so did one of the beasly bros but don't hold me to that as I was heading to grab a bike and pull some skids with the boys after my duty as commentator was over,

machen trail builders mike yorath, matthew downs and antoni peroni :-), antony was easily the rider to rider the trails the most, lapping up the atmosphere and having a ball even in one of the heavy at times showers.


Bike park wales crew member ricky came and joined in on the fun


I think It was safe to say that every one who attended the jam had an absolute ball, we sheltered through the heavy showers in the provided gazebos and shelters, and had a laugh until dark, the boys even riding down in dark slightly drunk, I do believe the boys would like to thank alex at tafia for the prizes, all the spectators and riders who made the event a memorable send off it deservers,

these awesome trails will be ridable until the 30th October when natural resources go in and start to fell the trees so you still have an opportunity to have a go before they may possibly get damaged, im pretty sure the boys will get back up there with shovels and I will be joining them so watch this space I don't believe its the end for this awesome place where the locals have no quarrels with you and your left alone to shred, what more do you want.

I do believe that simon gilyeat and chris "smikky" smith sould have a special thank you for heading down and grabbing some more beer for the masses, the boys left at the end was very appreciative lol